James Campbell

Published Tuesday, January 30, 2001

James Mulford Campbell, 70, died Dec. 20, 2000. He was born in Tennessee, and he graduated from high school in Lebanon, Ohio, in 1948, after which he played in the Army band while serving at Fort Dix, N.J., and later moved to Yellow Springs, Ohio, to attend Antioch College. While at Antioch, he took a co-op job at Behavior Research Labs, where he ran the prototype lab for the next 14 years. He later went to work as an electrical engineer for Hardy Trolander at Yellow Springs Instrument Co.

He was also an accomplished jazz musician, playing the clarinet, alto, tenor and bass saxophones. His musical career started in 1949 when he played on the Bands for Bonds recordings with Carl Halen and his Dixieland Rhythm Kings. He later played with Bobby Hackett, The Peewee Hunt Jazz Band, Bennie Schneider's Hurricane Jazz Band, The Docs of Dixieland, The Gin Bottle Seven, and The Bourbon Street Five.

In later years he performed with The Rambler Classics and often provided help in scoring theatrical productions at Yellow Springs' Center Stage. During the early 1970s, he worked on the steamboat Delta Queen, and was a regular feature of her house bands.